As a number of my favorite vintage SF sites have either gone into temporary hiatus or stopped posting completely, I’ve decided to make my Links from the Vintage SF Blogsphere a semi-regular feature (Part I). I will also include links to various articles that I’ve encountered that might be older as well.

“Normally when I read Soviet sci-fi I end up looking for hidden messages or subtexts, as so many authors living under repressive regimes have turned to sci-fi as a way of hiding up their ideas and their dissent. Certainly, there were elements in some of the stories here, most obviously in “We Are Not Alone”, when any heresy against the dominant ideology is harshly punished. And in “Twelve Holidays” the clever trick used to get rid of a ruler could have been wishful thinking on the part of an author living with the cult of great leaders. However, whether or not there are hidden messages, all of these stories sparkled and entertained and made me look at the world and universe around me with fresh eyes – which for me is what I look for in science fiction writing.”

“Holdstock attributes the unique character of British sf to a resistance to writing stories of an overly commercial nature; in this regard, British sf writers have an independence that allows them to approach the genre in ways that are arguably more imaginative, and less restricted, than writers in the other countries (……….namely, the USA).”

3) MPorcius, of MPorcius Fiction Log, reviews Allen Adler’s Terror on Planet Ionus (1957)… Sometimes someone else has to take the hits identifying the “bewilderingly limp and forgettable.” That said, I love learning about authors I’ve never read (and probably won’t in this case). Check the review out.

4) Although this is an older article from 2005, Michael Moorcock’s discussion in the Telegraph of alternate histories where the Nazis won WWII is worth the read. Moorcock claims that:

Only one alternate history series confronted Nazism with appropriate originality and passion. Published by the independent Manchester firm Savoy, David Britton’s surreal Lord Horror and its sequels entered the mind of a deranged surviving Hitler whose visions grew increasingly insane […] Britton’s narrative moved inevitably towards Auschwitz. The novel’s final issue, with its deliberately blank narrative panels among pictures of the concentration camp (followed by actual photographs of victims), was a silent memorial to the murdered, an indictment of our own moral complicity.

Considering how often WWII alternate histories side-step the historical realities of the Holocaust, trauma, and human toll, Moorcock brings up a lot of issues that we, as diligent readers, should keep in mind. Too often alternate histories of WWII slip into Holocaust denial.

………..sad to see other vintage sf / fantasy / horror blogs either going defunct, or posting only sporadically…….a lot of good material is no longer going to be showcased or previewed to a younger generation of readers…….!!!!

No problem. Thanks for all the reviews! (Less a comic book fan so I focus on your summaries of the various SF books you read — and of course, as I might have said in the past, you positive assessment of The Deep helped create my current obsession with John Crowley’s early novels).

I’d think one would need a more seriously collected range of data to ever claim a “culture movement.” A lot of discussion has also unfortunately moved to twitter — even John Scalzi, who posts his blog stats, has never been more popular in terms of book sales etc but his site has taken a hit.